Photo by John Suchocki / The RepublicanJoe McGinniss outside Hampshire Superior Court where he is writing a book abiout the court.

NORTHAMPTON – A Springfield man has just been sentenced to prison on gun charges in Hampshire Superior Court and Joe McGinniss is out in the lobby talking with the defendant’s family. Herbert Levy’s case has a number of interesting sidebars, notably that he’s a black man from Amherst with a name right out of the synagogue. Then there was the photograph his lawyer gave the judge during his sentencing argument: Levy in an Easter Bunny costume, entertaining his nieces and nephews.

Levy’s family is still bristling over the 5-7-year prison sentence and the fact that he ended up being the only person arrested following a fight in which he didn’t participate. Head slightly bent, McGinniss listens to them vent. Though he takes no notes, their sentiments could well show up in his new book, “15 Gothic Street.”

The title is the address of the Hampshire County Courthouse and it concisely states the book’s premise. For the year 2012 (give or take a few months) McGinniss will chronicle what goes on in the courthouse and follow some of those stories outside its walls. Casting a wide net that includes defendants, victims, lawyers, witnesses, family members and court employees, McGinniss is reaping a haul of emotions: pain, sorrow, vindication, closure, regret and, sometimes unexpectedly, humor.

“There’s all kinds of great characters,” McGinniss said. “I haven’t had a day yet when I said, ‘Gee, I wish I hadn’t come.’”

McGinniss’ career as a best-selling author of non-fiction books spans more than four decades, beginning with his 1969 breakthrough “The Selling of the President.” He has followed that up with 11 more books on a wide range of topics, from soccer to psycho killers. His most recent book, “The Rogue,” drew the wrath of conservatives for its unflattering portrayal of Sarah Palin and for the fact that McGinniss moved into the house next to hers while doing his research.

Father of five and grandfather of seven, McGinniss, 69, has lived in Pelham with his wife, Nancy Doherty, since 2007. Although he has traveled the world in his career as a writer, he finds himself not far from where he started when he graduated from Holy Cross in 1964. His first job after college was as a reporter at the Worcester Telegram.

“My goal was to get to the sport department so I could get the Red Sox beat,” he said.

McGinniss did get the sports beat at his next job on the Philadelphia Bulletin, but his career took a different turn in 1968 while he was doing a story on the late Howard Cosell for TV Guide. He was carpooling to work with the broadcaster when a man from a New York advertizing agency jumped in the car and announced that his company has just gotten “the Humphrey account.” McGinniss was surprised to learn that presidential candidates like Hubert Humphrey hired ad agencies.

“It turned out nobody else knew, either,” he said.

“The Selling of the President” focused on Humphrey’s opponent, Richard Nixon, and how he was packaged for public consumption. The book spent 31 weeks on the New York Times best seller list and is still in print.

“I never looked back,” said McGinniss.

His other best sellers include “Fatal Vision,” (1983), the story of Green Beret and physician Jeffrey MacDonald, who was convicted of murdering his wife and two young daughters, and “Going to Extremes,” (1980), a first-person account of Alaska replete with colorful characters from the last frontier. Each of those projects took on a life of its own that transcended the book.

MacDonald, who had courted McGinniss to write the story of his innocence, sued the author after McGinniss concluded that he had in fact committed the murders. The case settled out of court and some journalists publicly questioned McGinniss’ ethics.

His experience with “Going to Extremes” led McGinniss to propose a sequel looking at Alaska today. When Alaska governor Sarah Palin was tapped as the vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, that project turned into a book on her. “The Rogue” was written after the McCain/Palin ticket lost. Through a stroke of luck, McGinniss was offered the chance to live in the house next to Palin’s while he was doing his research. With Palin’s beating the drum, right wing pundits blasted him as a literary stalker.

McGinniss said that “Going to Extremes” started as an effort to go back to his beloved Alaska but got swept up in the Palin-mania. He was convinced to make her the main subject after listening to her claim in a speech that she was responsible for the creation of a billion dollar natural gas pipeline that didn’t exist.

“By then I’m learning she’ll say anything,” he said.

Once in Alaska, he was hours from signing a lease on an apartment in Anchorage when a woman offered to rent him her house, which happened to be next to the Palins’ in Wasilla.

“I would have been crazy not to,” he said.

Palin and McCain had already lost by then, but her star was rising among the Right. Todd Palin immediately walked over to confront McGinniss, who assured him he was not there to spy on the family. Nonetheless, pundits such as Glenn Beck accused McGinniss of oogling the Palin daughters through their bedroom windows. The people who believe that, McGinniss said, never read the book.

Once Palin gave up her presidential ambitions, interest in “The Rogue” abated. For McGinniss it was almost a relief.

“I spent far too much time learning about somebody who really has no redeeming qualities,” he said.

The McGinnisses, who had been living in Williamstown since the 1980s, moved to the Valley in 2007 so Nancy could finish her degree at Mount Holyoke College. Although she went on to a successful career as a journalist and free-lance editor, Doherty had dropped out of Mount Holyoke after her freshman year. She earned both her BA and an MFA while McGinniss was at work on “The Rogue.” Once that project was done, McGinniss started searching around for a new subject.

In the small fraternity of non-fiction book authors, McGinniss was familiar with Jonathan Harr and Tracy Kidder, who also live in the area. He was particularly intrigued by Kidder, whose books were set close to home.

“Tracy Kidder is a really smart guy,” he said. “He’s able to find terrific stories where doing research enables him to sleep in his own bed at night.”

McGinniss, who ran up $75,000 in expenses researching “The Rogue,” thought local and came up with the courthouse idea.

“I’ve been in court as a plaintiff, a defendant and a reporter,” he said. “There’s always something in the balance here. Every courtroom tells a story.”

He considered several other courts before settling on Hampshire Superior Court. McGinniss was won over, in part, by the Cara Rintala case. In what is perhaps the first murder case involving two married women, Ringala is charged with killing her wife, Annemarie Cochrane Rintala.

But McGinniss has found some gems in less publicized cases, like that of William Oldershaw, “the bourgeois bank robber.” Oldershaw pleaded guilty to robbing a Bank of America in Amherst. He handed the clerk there a note demanding $249 because he had been told that robbery under $250 was only a misdemeanor, according to testimony. To make his getaway, he called a cab. Oldershaw ended up sentenced to probation at a drug rehab facility.

“Here in Hampshire County you get a better class of defendants,” McGinniss joked.

Thus far, people have been cooperative and congenial, McGinniss said. He’s been impressed by the professionalism of the public defenders and by the general atmosphere in the courthouse.

“There’s no ill will between the DA’s office and the defense attorneys,” he said. “I think Dave Sullivan gets some of the credit for that.”

Although he knows that relations weren’t as smooth under the previous administration, McGinniss does not plan to go into Elizabeth Scheibel’s tenure as Northwestern District Attorney except to occasionally compare it to Sullivan’s.

While best-selling authors like McGinniss are the envy of other writers, that path can be full of rocks and thorns.

“It’s like walking across a tightrope with no safety net,” he said. “There’s no insurance. You always live on your next advance. With non-fiction you’re only as good as your next idea.”

Like other forms of publishing, the book business is in rough shape, making a hard job even harder.

“The printed word had a great run,” McGinniss said, “starting with Gutenberg all the way to the Internet.”

As a hedge against this, McGinniss hopes to serialize “15 Gothic Street” on the on-line site Byliner.com. This way, the work will be available in installments before it’s published in book form. There will undoubtedly be some people in and around the courthouse who will anxiously log on to see what he has wrought. That’s just the way it is when a writer like McGinniss is in town.